netdev - nstat man page expansion

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Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:59:08 +0200
From: Hrvoje Horvat <hrvoje.horvat1@...glemail.com>
To: netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: nstat man page expansion

Dear.

Oftenly i am using nstat command (and netstat as well), and it takes
some time to find all the counters explanations time after time.

Proposal
My proposal is to add a detailed explanation of the counters in nstat
command (in man page).
All of the counters are numbered and basically explained here:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/snmp_counter.rst

So my question is: is it possible to include those counters
(name+short info) from the above file to the man page of nstat
command?

Explanation
It is a problem when the official man page of the command that
collects and displays many network statistics does not explain any of
them.
For example it take me an minimum hour or so to find at least some
kind of list of statistics (which was mostly not correct), and
additional time to find out that most of the important statistics are
well documented here:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/snmp_counter.rst
<-- this document is released at 21-Jan-2024.

So from my point of view (and my colleagues) it is not so important to
have every statistic documented, but some or most of them.
In the above "snmp_counter.rst" file there are around 109 important
counters named and shortly explained.
For me it is good enough to understand and troubleshoot the network issues.

So please involve at least those counters in the man page.
And after time (from my point of view years is fine), the new one may
be added (some time after the "snmp_counter.rst" update is done).

Please consider this as a proposal from "the field of work".

BR,
Hrvoje Horvat.